


Resolution

by serafina19



Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: F/M, Halloween III, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-28
Updated: 2015-10-28
Packaged: 2018-04-28 14:03:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5093450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/serafina19/pseuds/serafina19
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After everyone leaves Shaw's for the night, Amy knows that she has to clear the air with Jake.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Resolution

**Author's Note:**

> You know what I love about fandom. There's been... seven (?) one-shots around the ending of Halloween III... yet they're all different. Here's hoping you like my offering (and sorry if you're sick of these, but I had to write this). I had hoped to have it up sooner, but I only had time to write during my lunch breaks over the past few days.

_Winning was supposed to feel better than this,_ Amy thought as Shaw’s started to empty out. As she took off her crown, she realized how it brought out a lot of ugly things in her relationships in the precinct.

That didn’t mean no good that came from it. Rosa and Gina gave her huge kudos, Hitchcock thanked her for involving him, and even the Captain came by to ensure that their professional rapport wasn’t beyond repair (his words). But it was an entirely different story for her boyfriend.

_“I am not going to come off well in this story.”_

That was an understatement. She could have almost forgiven Jake if he hadn’t literally thrown himself at her feet in the briefing room. That was her preferred phrasing, because even if he was joking, the other option made her cringe.

They had tried to pretend that everything was okay, that her teaching Jake a lesson made up for the things he had said, but the classic saying rung true. No, it wasn't that two wrongs didn't make a right, it was that a negative times a positive still left a negative taste in the air.

He had bought her a drink, a first of many apologies he had told her, but their conversation was stale and this wasn't the place to talk things through. Eventually, while Amy was playing darts with Rosa, Jake had slipped out of Shaw's, which was disappointing because this wasn't supposed to be the end of their night. He had been talking up Halloween all week, she had even helped him decorate his apartment. Whether she was on the winning or losing team this year, Amy was going to be the supportive girlfriend. Now, she didn't know where they stood and that indecision ate away at her.

This had to stop, and the only way that would happen was if she refused to let her night and her relationship with Jake have so many open ends. Leaving the bar, there was a cab passing by, so she had a good feeling about this. That multiplied as her cab ride flew by and she caught a break when she approached Jake's building at the same time as one of his neighbours.

But standing in front of his door was another matter. This wasn't a planned visit and she was still figuring out what she was going to say. Actually, the more she thought about it, the less it stuck. Reaching her hand into her pocket, Amy felt something that made her decide on another approach when she finally knocked.

There was no answer initially, not that it surprised her. She knocked again. "C'mon Jake."

That was enough to get a response from him. He opened the door, beer in his hand. She noticed how he had undone a couple of his shirt buttons, but otherwise, he looked pretty much the same way he did at Shaw's.

"I didn't think you'd show," he said.

Amy bit the inside of her lip as she noticed the decorations still up behind him. "I'm not staying."  He gave a slow nod, his frown growing, but she couldn’t do anything to change that. Holding out his mustache, she added, "I wanted to return this. It's cleaner than it was when I found it."  
  
From his reaction, it was clear that Jake didn’t even realize that it was his. "How did you get it?"  
  
"You left it in my car last week. Although now I know that Charles is more than willing to give me his key to your place when I want to surprise you."  Because the expression he had given her had nothing to do with the heist.

At that point, no one assumed that she would make a play for the crown, which meant she could come and go as she pleased. She had planned to pick up a disguise at Jake’s, but upon finding the mustache in her glove box, her whole plan changed.  With her allies already in place, the delay between Jake’s team stealing the crown and the twins’ appearance gave her the time she needed to get to her place and pick up the janitor costume.

The mustache was the final touch… after some needed cleaning. "Honestly Jake, you should consider buying some disinfectant for that thing, it was disgusting."

His eyes narrowed. "For hair? That exists?"

She could see his confusion rising, so she pulled him back to focus. "I doubt you remember this, but we worked on this drug case years ago… ” He just nodded, which made sense, considering they had worked a few of those together. But one always stood out to Amy.  "No leads for two weeks, but you get this crazy idea that the only way to get to their trash was to infiltrate the building as janitors. I wanted nothing to do with it, but eventually, I gave in."

Initially, nothing came to Jake, but he continued to stare at her, watching as she put back on her hat. Then it dawned on him. "You kept the uniform?"

Amy grinned. This story behind that was similar to the reason Jake loved his old car. That case marked the first time she had gone along with his shenanigans. Back then, she had berated Jake for not getting her a uniform with a girl's name on it, but he figured it was close enough to being short for Alison. The best part was that they got the uniform from a janitor who worked at that building named Al, but he had quit shortly after the case, and he said Amy could keep it.

Ridiculous, yes, but the tactic worked. "It was a reminder that sometimes you're right and I need to relax, even on a case." Looking down, her teeth gritted together. "Now, it's... something else entirely."

That was what Jake was waiting for. Standing to the side of his door, his grin fell again. "Do you want to come in and talk about it?"

"I want to, but I can't."  Amy took off the hat again, her fingers pressing against the brim. “I could give you a lecture on how much you hurt me, but one look at you and I know you’re punishing yourself enough.” 

After all, it wasn’t like Jake had much of a poker face, which was why it amazed her that he even survived six months of undercover work. But this was a much different look. One Amy had seen many times before, one she had often helped take off his face.

She couldn’t do that this time. “It makes me want to apologize, but you deserve this,” she said. “I even tipped the heist in your favour... as you were the only one who worked on that case with me. If you really were a great detective, you would have remembered that."

Technically, they had joked about it with Gina afterwards, but Amy didn't have high hopes about her remembering it. Regardless, she knew Jake wouldn't remember either because he was too blinded by winning that he forgot what made him a good detective.

At least he seemed to recognize it now. "I know, and I want to say I'm sorry again, but it doesn't begin to cover what I did to you."

"You're lucky I know you so well, because if I didn't, we would be having a completely different conversation."  His jumping to conclusions was one thing, but Amy didn’t forget the fact that Jake had multiple chances to trust her, and he chose not to. Sure, he trusted her in a high-risk professional scenario, but personal trust mattered in a relationship like theirs and she thought this meant more to him than he showed tonight.

However, the look on his face almost broke her, causing her to sigh. "The things you said, for the most part, I know that you didn't mean to hurt me. I also know we're going to laugh about this story someday.” Because they would. Even a few weeks from now, she would remind him of how she schooled him during the Heistening, and most of his embarrassing hi-jinks would be forgotten. “That doesn’t mean that I also can forgive and forget right away though. I told you that this relationship was important to me and then you accused me of being with you because of a stupid contest. You told me that you loved me and you were inches from proposing to me in the briefing room."

Standing fully in the doorway again, Jake rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, I don’t know what came over me."

Amy did. "Competition brings out the worst in us sometimes, but you sent a lot of signals that I don't know what to do with." What confused her the most was the way that he backpedalled after telling her that they were in love in the briefing room, but he admitted that the proposal was a dumb idea shortly after. It almost made the former sound genuine on his part.

She felt tempted to ask at Shaw's but she bit her tongue then, and as he nodded again, that question faded away. "Take the time you need," Jake told her. "I'll be here for you, regardless of what happens."

"Thank you." Taking a step back, Amy started to turn around, but she felt herself pause when she saw Jake start to close the door. It was funny, because that was a good place to leave it, but she suddenly didn't want to leave. Looking back at Jake, their eyes met and he stopped moving too. 

_"How are we together?"_

It wasn't the first time they had questioned this, it wouldn't be the last either. But the response was the same.

Because they were.

It seemed silly, childish even, because it didn't even answer the question. But romantic relationships never really made much sense at first and no matter how much Amy had tried to doubt the validity of this relationship, the truth was that it was one of the most real things she had in her life.

However, she knew that she couldn't just keep standing there. "Got to say, not what I thought our first fight would be."

Fight was maybe a stretch, but for the first time, Jake's smile cracked through to the surface. "Yeah, but it's not one I want to replicate. Next time, I'll just forget to put the toilet seat down."

Amy laughed. "You never remember to put it down."

"Great!” he said, putting the mustache on his face and giving her a grin. “I’m already half-way there."

Amy rolled her eyes, but she couldn’t help but return the expression. "I'll see you tomorrow Peralta."  


 

**~0~**

Entering the precinct's elevator the next morning, Amy sighed. She had slept better than she thought, but there was still a lot on her mind. She hoped that catching up on work would have its usual effect on her, as most people would probably show up late due to the shenanigans of last night, but she wasn't wired that way.

Then again, neither was Jake, but there he was at his desk. Before eight am. That never happened.

Standing by their desks, Amy put down her purse before sitting in her chair. "Why are you here so early? Is everything okay?"

He shrugged, as he continued to alternate his attention between the paperwork in front of him and his computer screen. "Couldn't sleep so I figured that I'd catch up on some stuff." Still not looking at her, he pointed his pen towards the pile of folders on her desk. "The stuff on the Phillip Moody case is ready for you to sign."

Picking up the folder, Amy flipped through the papers in disbelief. "I told you I'd handle that."  Mainly because that was how they did things when they worked cases together. In fact, Jake avoided the 'boring' side of things whenever possible. But this time, not only had he done it in an efficient fashion, but based on her first glance, there also wasn't an error in sight. "If this is supposed to be a gesture -"

"It's not."  He clicked a couple keys, emphatically hit his mouse and then finally looked her in the eye. "We're partners, which means that we should share the paperwork." Seeing that she was about to interject, he added, "Yeah, you may prefer doing it, but sometimes it's about doing the things that you don't like."

Her head tilted slightly as she closed the folder again. "Still sounds like a gesture."

And he didn't have to do anything. He had genuinely apologized, she believed him. Forgiveness was coming, possibly a little quicker than she thought, but Amy didn't want Jake to think he had to change his work habits... or anything about himself.

But it was clear that he wanted to do something, and she couldn't do much to convince him otherwise. "Call it what you want. I just want to get the job done."

Okay, that was something she couldn't ignore. Looking towards her screen, she started typing out an email before saying, "Title of your sex tape."

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him completely stop working. She finished off her email before looking back at him. "Are you sure that you want to bring that joke back, Santiago?" he asked, his face showing his happiest expression since Shaw's last night.

Amy's eyebrows quirked up as she grabbed her take-out coffee mug and sipped it. "Why would I be afraid of you? I'm not the one who just got humiliated by a girl."

Jake scoffed before leaning back in his chair, plopping his feet on the top of his desk as if that was supposed to make a point. “Everyone knows the only real winner is the original.”

“How about the person who won all three years?” It took Jake a second to figure out what she meant, but he knew that she was right. Even if it was a team effort the first two years, and only one person was crowned... it still counted.  Down went his feet, so Amy leaned forward, her smirk growing as he too came closer. “A thirty-three percent winning record doesn’t look so good now does it?”

"Oh,” Jake said in his super-dramatic voice. “It's on."

"Bring it, Peralta," she replied, with equal dramatics. Her head cocked to the side as she rolled her chair back. "But don't say I didn't try to warn you not to mess with the Queen of the nine-nine."

As Amy turned her head, she could have sworn she saw the full Peralta smile. It took everything she had not to crack, as she couldn't give up her power position with him, even over something as silly as this. Unfortunately, a grin snuck through, and she was pretty convinced Jake had seen it. She tried to steal a look his way, but the elevator doors opened behind them, so they both looked towards who was joining them.

"Santiago, good morning," Captain Holt said before noticing Jake also sitting there. "Good to see you're sharing your good habits with Peralta."

"Good morning to you too, Captain," Jake said. "What can I say? She inspired me last night."

Amy was pretty sure she saw a hint of a grin on the Captain's face before he said, "I have to agree with that sentiment, Peralta. Carry on."

Hearing that from Captain Holt caused Amy to beam up with pride, but for once, she held back from an awkward rant of thank you's and let the Captain to go his office in silence. After letting out a happy sigh, Amy looked back at Jake, who was staring right at her. She grinned at him, but they both still had a pile of paperwork to do, so she broke eye contact to finish up what Jake had left for her.

However, halfway through, her phone had buzzed, so she checked it, surprised to see Jake had just sent her a text.

  _I know we're not back to normal, but I’m glad you're still talking to me. Speaking of, are you free for lunch today? My treat (really). :))))))))))))_

Her lips parted momentarily as her eyes gazed up at him, still staring down at his phone. He really was something else, but there was no way that she was going to text him back while he was sitting right across from him. She wasn't that mad at him.

“Hey Jake,” Amy said, causing his head to pop up. “You want to go to Tony’s after work? I’m meeting up with Kylie for lunch, but I’ve been craving pizza.”

“Display temperature?”

Her face soured at that thought. “No, only you have that gross habit.” It couldn't be healthy, and she had given him two lectures on that subject, but Jake was Jake... and she knew that was one battle she could handle losing.

Jake nodded before a grin formed. “Your loss… your majesty.”

Amy smiled back at him before turning towards to her computer. Sure, things still weren’t perfect, but it was a small step forward, and she had a feeling that things were going to be just fine.

 

  **~End~**


End file.
